LONDON – The EU's efforts to rein in the power of big tech companies such as Google and Facebook through antitrust investigations have taken too long, dulling their effectiveness, a report said Thursday.
Legal tools available to the bloc's competition regulators, meanwhile, have not kept pace with digital markets, allowing Silicon Valley giants to eliminate rivals, said the report by the European Court of Auditors, which examined the EU's enforcement of competition rules over the past decade.
European Union authorities have been at the forefront of global efforts to bring the tech giants to heel but they've been criticized for lengthy investigations that have resulted in fines that are huge yet affordable for the wealthy companies.